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Wednesday, December 02, 2015

MinnPost: "The odd [CD2] congressional candidacy of David Benson-Staebler," By Cyndy Brucato.

Worth a link and a collateral comment, the item speaks for itself.

One thing Brucato wrote:

At least two other candidates’ campaigns have referenced the issue, albeit indirectly. Andy Parrish, a consultant for state representative Pam Myhra, one of the other four GOP candidates competing to replace Kline, said: “While some people might seem to polarize and divide the party, Pam Myhra has a record of uniting people from all across the spectrum and all walks of life.”

Tell me I am wrong but I recall Andy Parrish having been involved in payments from Bachmann's Iowa presidential thing, to the Sorenson fellow, who changed horses midstream when folks connected to the Ron Paul campaign offered more money.

The FBI was investigating, there was a Parrish affidavit, and Sorenson was charged with misconduct and copped a plea.

Is Myhra serious, using a campaign spokesperson with that background? Am I wrong that this reflects poorly on her?

Moreover, City Pages has reported more than once on Andy Parrish, (here, here, here and here) and it makes one wonder what Myhra's judgment was in choosing him.

Back to the MinnPost item by Brucato; "odd" is an apt choice of words.

____________UPDATE____________
I have made no effort to disguise my disdain for Jason Lewis, but in fairness, Brucato followed the above quoted paragraph indicating one of the other candidates, Lewis, also via a spokesperson, commented:

Noah Rouen, a spokesman for the race’s most high-profile candidate, former radio host Jason Lewis, offered: "Jason's campaign is focused on bringing people together. With a $20 trillion national debt and growing crisis abroad, Minnesota's second congressional district needs someone who understands the issues and has real solutions to the serious problems facing our district and nation."

While the MinnPost report clearly was about one candidate's oddity and only presented indirectly two other candidates' responses, each such response was via spokespersons having released statements to Brucato. The statements were in each instance vanilla pablum; however, a websearch of "Noah Rouen," yielded a LinkedIn page suggesting no baggage to the man's apparently exemplary character.

Given my opinion of Lewis, it might have been a better world had the candidate and spokesperson switched places. Opinions can differ. Others might be subscribing galtcoin-holding members of galt.io who view my view as foolish. Whoever those players may be; whatever they do for and with galtcoins; I am an outsider looking in. As with Skull and Bones. I can only guess whether Rouen is or is not a part of that part of the Jason Lewis Gestalt.

__________FURTHER UPDATE__________
More info, arguably cumulative, but worth noting.

Parrish was involved in the failed Ortman campaign, where fact checking yielded questions of substantial exaggeration and resume inflation.

Rouen has at least a decade of GOP activism ties, e.g., from a contributor to Mark Kennedy campaigning in 2005; to being media contact person for the failed Zellers-Simpson run for governor. Rouen's business website eschews listing his political clients while presenting a clientele list of small business PR purchasers including Pawn America and some healthcare entities. His Rouen Group business has been lauded by a regional Chamber of Commerce. Again, minds can differ but: swap the operative with the candidate and upgrade the ticket is the Crabgrass take on the Rouen consultancy.

In effect, does anyone sane want to send a spoiled egotistical drama queen to Congress? Watch this; and then ponder, where did the six-figure crowdfunding money go? Yeah. Sure. It went Galt. Absent any public accounting. Atlas Blinked, and it went somewhere. How many galtcoins would you pay to see the real money accounted for by audit? Or is that not an item of contention or discussion or of mere inquiry on the members-only galt.io website?

This link.

_________FURTHER UPDATE_________
Noah Rouen from all indications is a charitable good guy, and not one single link between him and the Lewis founded galt.io effort was found by reasonably thorough websearch. He runs a small business, understands small business, and has been recognized by the Chamber of Commerce his business appears to have joined.

Chris Steller wrote of Rouen during the Franken-Coleman recount, see here and here, but his complaint seems focused on N.Y. Times coverage concerns, and not on who Rouen is. Those links identify Rouen as having been a Rod Grams staffer in Washington, but beyond that, in his consultancy and aside from the MinnPost story focused on a different CD2 candidacy, he was most recently mentioned online regarding a taxi firm's precautionary use of dash cams. There is the Rod Grams - Jason Lewis media talking heads parallel, but can that reasonably be cause to doubt Rouen in any way?

In his Nov. 17, 2008, Daily Planet report Chris Steller wrote:

One reason Rouen might be given to such theories about votes favoring Democrat Al Franken is that Democrats accused him of participating in a conspiracy to distribute false campaign materials against Franken last summer. In a complaint — later dismissed — to the state Office of Administrative Hearing, DFL Party chair Brian Melendez named Rouen along with two other individuals and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace as behind a television ad that made charges against Franken related to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

The complaint says Rouen was a delegate to this year’s Republican National Convention and for two years a staff member for former U.S. Sen. Rod Grams (R-Minn.). Rouen’s biography at the Web site of his current employer — a St. Paul-based media relations firm called Public Affairs Company, where he is vice president — describes his service to Grams as a staffer and press secretary. Public Affairs Co. rebranded itself as GOP Convention Strategies in a marketing push timed to the RNC.

In an interview with the Minnesota Independent, Rouen said that he worked for Grams’ campaign as well from 1999 to 2000. He said while that level of partisan activity is in his past — he called work for the “Vote Yes Minnesota” referendum campaign his most partisan activity this year — he “makes no bones” about being a Republican or having voted for Coleman.

Rouen said he gave Capecchi, who found him via a Facebook group called “Looking for Coleman Ballots,” his whole background during a 30-minute interview two days ago. He said he was surprised to be identified only as a pheasant-hunter in the Times article, and in fact was somewhat surprised to be included at all, given how the ballots-in-trunk story has since “evolved.” (On Minnesota Public Radio today, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie reiterated that the story was false, calling for those who started the rumor to speak up.)

Capecchi did not return phone messages and e-mails from the Minnesota Independent.

Rouen’s political background isn’t hard to trace. In 2002, he ran for the Minnesota House of Representatives in District 60A but was defeated by DFLer Margaret Anderson Kelliher, now Speaker of the House. That year he also served as spokesman for the Rod Grams Minnesota Victory Club, a political action committee formed to aid candidates in local races. A frequent writer of letters on newspaper opinion pages, Rouen had a letter, which ridiculed Democratic vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), published in the Oct. 31 edition of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

So, a regular Republican who declines to mention past Grams work or other political matters on the public part of his LinkedIn profile while also declining to identify political affiliation or activity on his current business website, e.g., omitting a past GOP candidacy for office in a losing effort against Kelliher, but that is in no way an effort to mislead or misstate his record of small business PR and marketing assistance.

One curiosity, Google's cache of an 11/23/15 Roeun business post mentions Jason Lewis, while the current online version has that part of the item purged and replaced. Google's cached page states:

[...]

The Campaign Trail
Political news and analysis done differently…

Jason Lewis Kick-Off Event:
Former talk-show host Jason Lewis, the leading GOP Candidate for the 2nd Congressional district is holding a campaign kick-off event tomorrowevening in Burnsville. (details)
Pro Tip: Candidate Should Hold Off On Controversial Saturday Night Tweets:
A Burnsville DFLer abruptly quits his State House race after tweeting ‘ISIS isn’t necessarily evil’ on Saturday night.

Burnsville’s Dan Kimmel, says that his post was “badly misinterpreted.” (read)

Winners and Losers from the Democratic Debate:
If you missed Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate, you are not alone. It was the least watched of all of the presidential debates thus far. So how did it go? Here is the Washington Post’s “winners and losers.” (read)

Worth a Read:

[...]

[bolding added, formatting differs in original] Here is a screen capture of the content of the "details" page link in the above text, click it to enlarge and read:


The linked page screen capture shows a footer without the standard "Paid for ..." disclaimer language, which is a detail others might challenge. I make no claim to knowing nuances of campaign materials funding disclosure, but as a past legislative candidate, Rouen should know the rules and presumably has followed them. The second item linked from here has a different footer, i.e., not claiming Rouen Group as the copyright holder, but claiming "JasonLewis2016" for that status.

For comparison, the footer on the jasonlewis2016.com website states, " Paid for by Jason Lewis for Congress, PO Box 515, Cottage Grove, MN 55016."


With that, the book is closed on whether there is anything truly negative in the Rouen past. None was found. A past history in Republican politics and a present service as a media rep for the Lewis campaign seems all that is there, with no link found between Rouen and the galt.io promotion. If any reader knows of any such link, please post a comment with a link.

ADDED NOTE: Rouen's name is absent from those names linked to galt.io at the angel.co site, e.g., here, here and here.

ALSO: Rouen listed favorably, here.